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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pure adrenaline...,
By
This review is from: Planet of the Apes (Audio CD)
I've been looking forward to this CD for a good while, ever since I initially heard it featured a brass section of 12 trombones, 12 french horns, 3 trumpets, 6 tubas, and even a boy's choir. Well, the low brass is definitely there, and I suspect that there are more than just 3 trumpets blaring, but thankfully there is no choir. I saw thankfully because, if there had been, this score would be almost identical to Sleepy Hollow.But unlike my other reviewers, I don't feel a score should be judged on how balanced the sounds are. If the movie calls for non-stop action, then "Hey! This is what you get!" Think about it, you have excitement when the ship crashes, when the human first enters the city, when the human (possibly) escapes something, when he forms an army, and when they do battle. If Tim Burton finds time for a creditable love interest throughout all this, I will be amazed (note, I said creditable). The score is loud. It is one of the best percussive based scores I have ever heard. There are some great brass cues, and even the strings are given the melody for a while. The most noteable aspect is the use of synthesizers mixed in slightly with some of the opening themese. You notice them alongside the orchestrations, but they don't sound out of place. In fact, the sound is perfect. In a way, it's the type of mix you would hear when monkeys master technology.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A few jewels found amoung lots of noise,
By "fox@ucla.edu" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Planet of the Apes (Audio CD)
First, let me go on record to say that Danny Elfman is my idol (he says without shame) and is basically the reason I got into music in the first place. I consider him an unrecognized musical genious. And I'm serious about this. I own almost every album he's released.Unfortunately, I find again to be less than overly thrilled with this latest effort, and I've finely figured out why. It's too much. Way too much. Good taste is all but discarded in favor of loud musical broo-ha-ha. This album is exteremly loud, testosterone pumping dissonance, with little in the way of sensitivity or musical understanding. It used to be, for instance with Mission: Impossible (my controversial pick for Danny Elfman's best score ever) that by the time he got to this level of over-the-top musical excitement, as in on the train at the end of the movie, he had earned it. We were ready for it, and when the full orchestral and sampled percussive forces are unleased it's unstoppable. But here, we get this from the very start. By about the fourth track, there is no where else for the music to go, and the album suffers from boredom. Loud boredom it's true, but it's still boredom. In my opinion this worked a lot better in Sleepy Hollow (and granted this score may be just what the movie ordered- we will see) probably because it was almost all accoustic so the musicians we're able to enjoy it. Here, they were probably passing out from exhaustion. Furthermore, the loudness and over-sampling and just blatant action score adrenaline masks what real substance there may be. It's like hyping something way up, blowing it way out of proportion, obscuring whether there really was anything there to begin with. I think Sleepy Hollow has something, a seed of brilliance, and Mission: Impossible is incredible. Here it's very hard to say. That said, track 4- the Hunt- must be heard to be believed. It's astounding. I just wish there was greater contrast to it elsewhere in the album. Also worth note is the Main title, and more so the Main Title Deconstruction. I also firmly appreciate track 11, Preparing for Battle, in which- despite its extremely thick orchestration and purcussive sounds- you can still here what makes this Danny Elfman, and why he is an extremely skilled composer. The counterpoint is exquisite, if in danger of being lost to the over-the-top standard Hollywood mixing job. However, with these tracks you can hear what makes this Danny Elfman and not another over-the-top Hollywood action [...](cough-cough-zimmer-cough). Elfman also gets his usual mileage out of a simple three note motive- nobody can do it better. In conclusion, worth buying for the fan and for the adrenaline dose, not as good a score as Sleepy Hollow or Simple Plan (his most recent best), but still far and away better than his embarrassing Instinct and Proof of Life.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Pleasant Mix of Opposing Sounds,
By
This review is from: Planet of the Apes (Audio CD)
When the score for the re-imagined version of Planet of the Apes starts playing on your speakers, it can easily be a frightening experience. It is wild, it is harsh, it is loud, it is schizophrenic, it is seemingly disorganized. Then you listen some more. You go through a few tracks, some are like the opening, others are subtler--maybe not much, but at least the percussion takes a break. By the end of the album, however, there is an overall unity, exuberance, an underlying thematic quality that somehow turns this oppressive score into a success. Don't ask me how; just take my word for it. Since Danny Elfman came onto the film-scoring scene, he has been relatively diverse. He started silly, became thematically dramatic, then slipped into obscure minimalism. Planet of the Apes represents a new stage, or perhaps a whole new style completely.Even with the first track, despite my hesitations to immerse myself in the style, I was overjoyed with what Elfman had done with this score. For anyone familiar with Jerry Goldsmith's work on the original, there is no dispute that it was unique--to simply use the word unique is to deprive it of the vulgarity it cherishes. If I said that Elfman's score comes across as initially oppressive, then Goldsmith's is like a recording of nails on a chalkboard played to the tune of painful infant screams. For this reason, the original score has achieved a lot of respect for its originality and the harsh way it coupled with the plot of the story. For myself, I need something that at least resembles music, before I stick it in a CD player. Was Goldsmith's score appropriate? Yes! Was it listenable? No! Does Elfman make up for this? Indeed! Elfman's score can easily be sectioned into two opposing categories: Percussive pounding and simple strings. In the end, both are effective and a welcome listen. There is surprisingly little thematic material, a decision not wholly inconsistent with Elfman's minimalist period, but certainly uncharacteristic of his Burton scores. In the end, however it isn't needed, because the cohesion lies in the rhythms and beats. It has always been my opinion that Elfman has achieved his composing fame most persistently for his ability to use percussion to new advantage, perhaps a byproduct of his Oingo Boingo years. Therefore, whenever he engages in a rowdy excerpt of high-pounding percussion, it succeeds beyond one's expectations for such a limited aural experience. This score certainly, however, would have failed, were it only an hour of percussion. Elfman uses it to his advantage, but never overdoes it. If rhythmic percussion categorizes the militaristic apes and action sequences, then the intermittent, subtler passages are seemingly intentional references to a more space-oriented sci-fi genre. To this effect, it is a provocative contradiction to the setting of the story, the lush ape city and the dusty wastelands that out lie it. In the end, however, it creates a style and a mood that captures the listener's interest more wholly then if Elfman had slumped into the simple underscore that a lesser composer would have been content with. It is small additions like this that make for a unique and ultimately entertaining experience. In conclusion, Planet of the Apes, as a listenable score if not as a film, exceeds its predecessor and combines two contradictory styles--one brash and unrelenting, the other subtle and magical--to form an overall whole that would have failed without the opposing polarities of these two sounds. One will undoubtedly be put off at first by the maddening sounds that escape the speakers, but be patient: there is an interesting and unusual score here that will not fail to entertain. This is Elfman at his most revolutionary, combining elements that don't seem inappropriate for the film, but utilizing them in ways never before explored.
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